


Onwards and Upwards

by lunarpaddle



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Nonbinary Character, Post Season 5, Team as Family, Trans Character, and season 6? I guess?, god i love them, how to adopt an agent by phil coulson, nebulous future fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 09:01:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20005723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarpaddle/pseuds/lunarpaddle
Summary: Daisy couldn’t help but laugh. “Have you encountered a stray, talented youth? Are they skeptical of authority, unwilling to trust you, but determined to do what they can to help anyway? Follow these 10 easy steps to adopt them today!”





	Onwards and Upwards

“She tried to break in.” What the fuck.

“Yes,” May replied.

“To the Lighthouse.” What the actual, living, fuck.

“Yes.” May replied, voice a hair more exasperated in a way you only started to notice when you’d been the cause of it one time too often.

“She-” The figure standing behind May, hands cuffed, cut her off.

“It’s they, actually, and I’m right here.” God, the kid barely looked 18. 

“Does Mack know?” What the fuck.

“He’s out with Elena for the night, but I sent him an alert. Low priority.”

The kid hardly looked intimidating - bright green hair, lean frame, no taller than 5 foot. Daisy could almost see how they’d be good enough at climbing around to get into the lighthouse, if the idea of anyone even knowing where the lighthouse is wasn’t so ridiculous.

“And they’re my job...why, exactly?” 

“Still here.”

“Figured you might understand their situation better than me.” Right. Of course.

She could already tell this was going to be a long evening.

\---

“You’re Quake, right?” Eden was more or less certain it was her, but everyone thought it was her that killed that US General too, and they were wrong then. No harm in checking.

“I am.” Okay, that was pretty cool. I mean, she works for a gross shadowy government agency and that sucks but...Quake was still pretty cool.

“You know I didn’t know there were people here, I thought this place was abandoned. I just wanted to check it out. Can I get my phone call? You’re a government agency, you can’t just illegally hold me here.” Their mind kept flipping back and forth between panic and anger and Holy Shit That’s Quake, and it really wasn’t helping.

“We’re not a government agency, you can’t have your phone call, and you’re not going anywhere until you tell us exactly where you found the information on this base’s location. After that we’ll return you to wherever you live, and you can go right on with your life not telling anyone about this.” 

Quake sounded a lot more tired than they would have expected.

In retrospect, they might have had some dumb expectations.

“I, uh. I don’t exactly have anywhere to be returned to.” The look on Quake’s face, before she lowered it slowly into her hands, seemed almost resigned.

\---

“So according to them, they worked it out from bits and pieces of the old SHIELD data dump. Apparently breaking into old SHIELD bases is a hobby of theirs, although considering some of the anti-establishment beliefs they wouldn’t shut up about, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was more to it.”

Daisy turned her head slightly so she could see the tv better before laying it back down on Fitz’s lap, exhausted. It had been a long evening. Jemma snorted from her spot next to them, head on Fitz’s shoulder.

“I don’t blame May for sending them your way. They sound like a mini-you.”

“Yeah, when are you drawing up the SHIELD induction papers?” Fitz grinned, flipping through the channels.

“You’re joking, but I have no clue what to do with them! No home to send them back to, no way to make sure they don’t blab to everyone about where we’re set up - I can’t even ask myself what Coulson would do, ‘cause we damn well know the answer to that!” Jemma gave off a giggle at that, Fitz looking at her questioningly.

“I just - I just, I wonder if Mack has one of those recordings of his titled ‘How to adopt an agent’” 

Daisy couldn’t help but laugh. “Have you encountered a stray, talented youth? Are they skeptical of authority, unwilling to trust you, but determined to do what they can to help anyway? Follow these 10 easy steps to adopt them today!”

None of them could stop laughing for a while after that, till Fitz found something on they all liked and they settled into each other.

\---

“Mack seriously sent them on mission with you?” Elena exclaimed as she sidestepped another one of the low grade automatons before chucking it halfway across the room with one arm. “With no training?”

“I think he thought it was a clever ploy or something,” dodge, duck, quake, punch, “‘The people you gave that information to were dangerous, Eden, and I can’t spare an entire team to take care of naive teenagers making messes. Agent Johnson will take you to their base, and you’ll resolve it one way or another.’” 

“Good Mack impression,” Elena laughed before zipping into the next room, returning with what looked like 3 sets of robot arms.

“Thankyou!” She replied, sending a shockwave the way of the 3 armless robots that had just emerged from the door, “But yeah, I mean, they were dangerous, nasty fascist types, but it was clearly a recruitment ploy. I’m starting to think Jemma’s joke about the ‘How to adopt an agent’ Coulson tape might not be that much of a joke.”

“Oh, no, that is a thing! Mack couldn’t stop laughing when he showed it to me!”

“I’m sorry, wha-”

A gigantic, four-legged robot crashed through the wall, and the conversation had to wait for a later date.

\---

One thing led to another, and Eden had somehow found themselves on their third mission with SHIELD. Nothing so far had been what they expected.

For a start, they seemed to be less of a government agency and more of a cross between a superhero group and international mercenaries? Which, as a combination, worked surprisingly well.

Secondly, there was a lot more casual banter on the job than they’d have thought. Even between the lower level agents, there seemed to be a lack of concern in dangerous situations. From the snatches of conversation they’d overheard, the whole group seemed to have saved the world and faced impossible odds a ridiculous number of times, so they supposed it made sense that they’d get used to it.

Thirdly, between the higher-ups (who Eden seemed to end up spending a weird amount of time with), there was a shocking level of...tenderness? Closeness? When Agent Rodriguez’s arm had been damaged in the field, Agent Simmons had rushed to her side, and wouldn’t stop fussing till they got back to base. One night, on their way to get some water, they’d caught the Director carrying Quake, passed out, back to her room. And Agent May… well, Agent May didn’t exactly seem the tender type, but they once saw her glare daggers at an agent she caught talking shit about Deke. The sentiment, it seemed, was that the only ones who got to make fun of him were them.

This mission, however, would prove to break their expectations most of all. The group they were after had turned out to be, essentially, a bunch of Neo-Nazis who’d got their hands on alien tech. They were scum, obviously - but something in them was still somehow shocked when they breached the basement and there, chained up, were a group of bruised and bloody children.

Whatever the expression on Quake’s face had been, it was replaced with a grim mask.

“Clear the building, take out all remaining enemy combatants on sight. Eden, they might recognise me, and you look less official and intimidating - you’ll help me escort them out.” 

Quake snapped the chains easily, and Eden talked to the kids, most of whom looked around 16 - they were scared, and most of them wouldn’t talk back, but an older looking girl explained what had been done to them. Explained that Markus couldn’t walk, they broke his leg, and they’d done some kind of experiment on Tasha and she wouldn’t wake up, and Alex hadn’t been able to see to begin with. It was slow progress, getting them all together, but they were about halfway to the exit when Quake received some kind of message across comms.

“Take them the rest of the way, there’s a situation I need to handle upstairs.”

“But- “ but she was gone, and Eden was left to help the kids to the exit by themself.

\---

She lay in the medical bay, burn cream barely soothing the itching across her hands and arms. Controlling a blast was never easy, always dangerous, and practically impossible to stop doing safely - but it wasn’t her first time, and she could take more damage since the serum, and Jemma was good at what she did.

“It was a stupid risk.”

“Jemma.”

“It was! You could have died!”

“Jemma.”

“I know what was at stake, but you can’t just - your life matters too.”

“Jemma. I know. I don’t take risks like that lightly, I promise. Thank you, for being worried - you, and Fitz, and May, and- you got me back from that place, after Hive. But I can’t just - I try my best to look after myself, I try my best to find other ways, but the moment I stop being willing to give my life to save the innocent, kids or adults, the whole world or just one person - that’s why I’m here, Jemma. Why we’re all here.” The look on Jemma’s face was crestfallen, but she couldn’t pretend to be sorry for this.

“I - I know. I’m sorry, I just -”

“You worry. I know. Thankyou.” But Jemma wasn’t looking at her anymore; her eyes were locked with Eden’s across the room.

“I’ll just - I’ll go fetch you some more pain meds.” Eden walked up to the bed as she left, hesitant and uncertain.

“I just wanted to say, that-” they took a breath, lifted their eyes to meet Daisy’s. “You saved those kids’ lives. I mean, I knew you guys saved lives, you’ve saved the world, but seeing it like that - small, and personal, and real - I guess it just clicked. I’m sorry for being such a little shit these past weeks, and I’m sorry for trying to break in in the first place, and I’m sorry - I’m sorry for this.” 

Their voice shook as they put a small USB stick down onto the table beside the bed, their eyes wet.

“That’s all the data I collected from my time here, and from the bases I broke into before, too. I was going to send it to other places too, but, but I-” and they were properly crying now, and god, Daisy kind of wanted to cry too, “I won’t now, I promise, and I’ll get out of your hair and I won’t tell anyone-” and fuck, she couldn’t let the kid carry on like this. She couldn’t.

“Coulson - he was the director before Mack - Coulson used to say we were the shield. We’re the line between the world, and the much weirder world, and we keep them safe. I kept those kids safe from an alien bomb today, but they wouldn’t have gotten out of there without you. I know those agents - if Elena was there, Jemma, Fitz, Mack - maybe they could have gotten through to them. But they weren’t. You were.” Eden’s eyes were glued to hers now, still watery.

“Coulson gave me a chance, when nobody else would. I never did what you did - told them what I was doing. The team found out I was spying on them by chance, and no amount of apologising changed that. But he believed in me.” She took their hand in hers. “And the rest of the team did too, even if it took time. Because they saw something in me that they had too - the desire to help, and the determination to do that, whatever it took.”

“God knows I still don’t think much of corporations, or government agencies, or global surveillance. Most governments suck, most companies suck, even SHIELD as it was when I joined - it was so, so flawed, in so many ways. But what we are now is something better, something Coulson made. His view of SHIELD was idealistic, and when he was handed the reins, he reshaped it till it fit those ideals - till it was family, and hope, and protection above all else. Coulson looked at me and saw someone who could be a part of that, and-” she was actually crying a little bit, fuck, “and I see the same thing in you.”

The look in their eyes, awe and relief and determination, would stick with Daisy for a long time.


End file.
